1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a technique in which a terminal electrically connected to a circuit substrate provided in a liquid storage container and a terminal provided in a mounting section on which the liquid storage container is mounted can be electrically connected.
2. Related Art
In the related art, in a printer (liquid ejecting apparatus) including a print head (liquid ejecting section) ejecting liquid such as ink, a cartridge (liquid storage container) charged with liquid is mounted on a cartridge mounting section of an apparatus body and the liquid can be supplied to the printer. A circuit substrate provided with a memory capable of recording information regarding the ink or a circuit element to which a voltage is applied from a printer side is mounted on the cartridge (liquid storage container). When the cartridge is mounted on the cartridge mounting section, a terminal (container-side terminal) electrically connected to the circuit substrate comes in contact with a terminal (apparatus-side terminal) provided in the cartridge mounting section, and the cartridge and the printer are electrically connected. A printer that is an example of such a type of liquid ejecting apparatus is disclosed in JP-A-2012-218287.
The liquid ejecting apparatus of JP-A-2012-218287 includes a cartridge mounting section and a circuit substrate (container-side circuit substrate) which is provided on a side surface of the cartridge mounted on the cartridge mounting section. A plurality of terminals (container-side terminals) are disposed in two upper and lower lines in the circuit substrate. Meanwhile, the cartridge mounting section is provided with an apparatus-side circuit substrate and a terminal module, and the apparatus-side terminals corresponding to the container-side terminals are disposed in the terminal module. The apparatus-side circuit substrate can be electrically connected to the container-side terminals through terminals (apparatus-side terminals) of the terminal module. The apparatus-side terminals are elastically held in a slit formed in a housing of the terminal module. A substantially triangular protrusion section protruding in a direction from the terminal module side to the cartridge side is formed at the leading end of the apparatus-side terminal in a state where the cartridge is mounted on the cartridge mounting section. The protrusion sections are arranged in two upper and lower lines corresponding to the container-side terminals.
Here, as disclosed in Chinese Patent Application No. 201210548626.7, there is a desire to dispose container-side terminals for saving space to reduce the size of a container-side circuit substrate in a cartridge. However, in order to save space in the container-side terminals, if the sizes of the terminals are simply reduced or intervals between the terminals are narrowed, there is a concern that contact failure with the apparatus-side terminals occurs or a failure such as short circuiting between adjacent terminals occurs. Thus, in order to avoid such an inconvenience, the container-side terminals are disposed on an end surface of the container-side circuit substrate and the container-side terminals come in contact with one lower line of two upper and lower lines of the apparatus-side terminals using an edge portion of the end surface, and thereby space saving is proposed.
FIGS. 10A to 10C are explanatory views illustrating a contact state between an apparatus-side terminal and a container-side terminal in the related art. FIG. 10A is a perspective view of a container-side circuit substrate, FIGS. 10B and 10C are explanatory views illustrating the contact state between the apparatus-side terminal and the container-side terminal (respectively corresponding to a cross-sectional view that is taken along line XB-XB and a cross-sectional view that is taken along ling XC-XC of FIG. 10A). As illustrated in FIG. 10A, a plurality of grooves 201 are formed in one line on an end surface of a container-side circuit substrate 200. Contact surfaces 202 including contact sections that come in contact with the apparatus-side terminals are formed in the grooves 201. The contact surface 202 is formed of a conductive layer of copper and the like. A configuration of the cartridge mounting section is similar to that of JP-A-2012-218287 and apparatus-side terminals 210A and 210B having elasticity are disposed in two upper and lower lines. A substantially triangular protrusion section is provided in a leading end portion of each of the apparatus-side terminals 210A and 210B, and an inclined section 211 is provided in the protrusion section. If the cartridge is mounted on the cartridge mounting section, the upper line apparatus-side terminal 210A comes in contact with an upper portion of the contact surface 202 (see FIG. 10B) and the inclined section 211 of the lower line apparatus-side terminal 210B comes in contact with the edge portion (corner portion in which the end surface of the substrate comes in contact with a surface of the substrate) of the lower portion of the contact surface 202 (see FIG. 10C).
In the contact state of the related art illustrated in FIGS. 10A to 10C, the edge portion of the lower portion of the contact surface 202 of the container-side terminal comes in contact with the apparatus-side terminal 210B (apparatus-side terminal) of the lower line. Thus, it is possible to dispose the container-side terminals with respect to the container-side circuit substrate 200 for saving space. However, in this case, an elastic force F0 of the apparatus-side terminal 210A of the upper line acts perpendicular to the contact surface 202, whereas an elastic force F of the apparatus-side terminal 210B of the lower line acts obliquely to the contact surface 202. At this time, the elastic force F includes a component force F1 perpendicular to the contact surface 202 and a component force F2 parallel to the contact surface 202. As a result, for example, the container-side circuit substrate 200 is shifted in a direction in which the component force F2 acts and thereby there is a problem that the contact failure occurs. Furthermore, the elastic force F is divided into the component force F1 and the component force F2, and F1 that is a force for pressing the apparatus-side terminal 210B to the contact surface 202 is smaller than the elastic force F. As a result, for example, if the cartridge is vibrated due to a printing operation and the like, a positional shift of the container-side circuit substrate 200 due to the vibration occurs and there is a problem that the contact failure occurs.